SERVICE MANAGEMENT

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U N I V E R S I T Y O F S Z C Z E C I N SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL

NO. 681

SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Vol. 8

S Z C Z E C I N 2 0 1 2

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The articles are printed in accordance with the materials provided by the Authors.

The publisher does not take responsibility for the articles’content, form and style.

Board of Editors

Urszula Chęcicka, Inga Iwasiów, Danuta Kopycińska, Izabela Kowalska-Paszt Piotr Niedzielski, Ewa Szuszkiewicz, Dariusz Wysocki

Edward Włodarczyk – Chair

Aleksander Panasiuk – Chair of the Senat Commision for Periodicals and Publishing Edyta Łongiewska-Wijas – Executive Editor of the Szczecin University Press

Referees

Barbara Kos (University of Economics in Katowice) Stanisław Korenik (Wrocław University of Economics)

Bernard F. Kubiak (University of Gdańsk)

Barbara Marciszewska (University School of Physical Education and Sport in Gdańsk) Mirosława Pluta-Olearnik (University of Business and Commerce in Wrocław)

Kazimierz Rogoziński (Poznań University of Economics) Grzegorz Spychalski (Westpomeranian University of Technology)

Scientific Board

Marianna Daszkowska (Gdańsk University of Technology) Kazimierz Kłosiński (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)

Jolanta Mazur (Warsaw School of Economics) Piotr Niedzielski (University of Szczecin) – Chair

Aleksander Panasiuk (University of Szczecin)

Mirosława Pluta-Olearnik (University of Business and Commerce in Wrocław) Kazimierz Rogoziński (Poznań University of Economics)

Aniela Styś (Wrocław University of Economics) Scientific Editor

Aleksander Panasiuk Editorial Manager Agnieszka Sawińska

Adam Pawlicz Proofreading Elżbieta Blicharska

Text design Adam Pawlicz

The paper copy of the journal is its primary edition.

(Polish: Wersja papierowa zeszytu jest jego wersją pierwotną)

ISSN 1898-0511

SZCZECIN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Edition I (reprint). Publishing sheet size 13,5. Printing sheet size 18. Format B5.

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CHAPTER 1. INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

ALEKSANDRA LASKOWSKA-RUTKOWSKA – Effectiveness of Polish innovation policy in services area ... 9 TOMASZ NOREK – Innovation audit as a tool of construction and

evaluation of innovative potential of the company. Results of empirical studies ... 23 AGNIESZKA WOJTCZUK-TUREK – Organizational innovative

behaviours – the role of human capital in creating organizational value in the sector of services ... 37

CHAPTER 2. LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

CEZARY MAŃKOWSKI – Logistics support services for e-learning courses ... 51 ANNA WIKTOROWSKA-JASIK – Complexity of Logistic Services Offer

as a Measure of Competitive Position of Companies in the Transport and Logistics Services Sector ... 59

CHAPTER 3. ENTERPRISE SERVICE MANAGEMENT

LESZEK BURSIAK – Business expresions exchange campaign as the remedy for pejoration of their meaning in the business context ... 71 SERHAT HARMAN, EBRU KANYILMAZ POLAT – Do CEO duality and

board heterogeneity affect firm performance? Evidence from Istanbul stock exchange (ISE) services index ... 85 AGNIESZKA SOKOŁOWSKA – Ethical area of social responsibility in a

small enterprise key aspects ... 97 MAGDALENA MAJCHRZAK – Reasons for using services of offshoring

at the international services market ... 109

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Table of contents 4

CHAPTER 4. REGIONAL MANAGEMENT

ALICJA SEKUŁA – Promotion and its tools in territorial marketing... 123

CHAPTER 5. ENTERPRISE SERVICE VALUE MANAGEMENT

BARBARA WOŹNIAK- SOBCZAK – Strategies and attitudes of workers to creating enterprise value ... 141

CHAPTER 6. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

BOLESŁAW FABISIAK – Cost effective communication with engineering service teams working abroad based on Cloud Computing and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) ... 155 MACIEJ CZAPLEWSKI – Introduction of Internet into Polish Post

services ... 165

CHAPTER 7. QUALITY MANAGEMENT

JUSTYNA WITKOWSKA – Customers expectations and the quality of experienced insurance service – research report ... 175

CHAPTER 8. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

GRAŻYNA BRONIEWSKA – Emotional intelligence in modern virtual organizations ... 185 AGNIESZKA BUDZIEWICZ-GUŹLECKA – Management of changes in

enterprises as a form of adaptation to e-economy ... 199

CHAPTER 9. TOURISM MANAGEMENT

ALEKSANDER PANASIUK – Chosen problems of tourist information

system management on the example of West-Pomeranian

Voivodeship’s municipalities ... 211

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Table of contents 5

AGNIESZKA SAWIŃSKA, RYSZARD WOŹNIAK – Rebranding in the market of spa and tourism services on the example of health and wellness center “Verano” in Kołobrzeg ... 225 MARIOS SOTERIADES, EUGENIA WICKENS – Tourism destination

marketing: Potential contribution of clustering approach ... 241 ZHOLDASBEKOV ABDIMANAP ABDRAZAKOVICH, KURMASHEVA

MOLDIR BIZHIGITOVNA – Problems of training tourism managers in Kazakhstan ... 251

CHAPTER 10. CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

DARIUSZ KUCZYŃSKI, TOMASZ TARASZKIEWICZ – Customer friendly public services- the good practice example of the district labour office in Gdańsk ... 263 WIOLETTA WEREDA – Loyalty programs management and satisfaction

of the customer in a large company ... 271

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Chapter I

______________________

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

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SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL

No. 681 SERVICE MANAGEMENT vol. 8 2012

ALEKSANDRA LASKOWSKA-RUTKOWSKA Warsaw School of Economics

EFFECTIVENESS OF POLISH INNOVATION POLICY IN SERVICES AREA

Polish innovation policy

In recent years the stimulation of innovation has received top priority in Poland’s economic policy. The government adopted the “Increasing innovation in Poland to 2006” plan in 2000. It has now been extended in a document entitled “Directives for increasing innovation in the economy during 2007–2013”, which contains an assessment of innovation in the Polish economy, as well as policy recommendations for the future.

The Operational Programme “Innovative Economy 2007–2013” is one of the key instruments of the national strategy, which will mobilize EU Regional Development Funds of EUR 7 bilion and an additional EUR 12,2 Billion form national public sources. This programme includes the following priority axes:

¹

– Research and Development of New Technology,

– R & D infrastructure, – Capital for Innovation,

– Investments in innovative undertakings, – Diffusion of innovation,

– Polish Economy of the International Market,

1 Szczegółowy opis priorytetów Programu Operacyjnego Innowacyjna Gospodarka, 2007–2013, Ministerstwo Rozwoju Regionalnego, Warszawa 7 lutego 2008.

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Aleksandra Laskowska-Rutkowska 10

– Information Society Establishment and Development, – Technical Assistance.

International research indicates that innovation in the Polish economy has grown significantly since 2005. In Inno Metrics survey “European Innovation Scoreboard, Comparative Analysis of Innovation Performance 2006” Poland was grouped with countries that are “catching up”: Portugal, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Greece and Slovenia.

²

This marks a change, since in the previous year Poland was listed among countries that are “losing ground”.

Most of the components of the SII have increased in Poland significantly.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Polish economy is growing fast relative to EU- 15 countries, it ranked last but one in the survey. It scored lowest in applications and export of hi-tech products (47) and in intellectual property rights (44). In knowledge creation and diffusion of innovation Poland ranked 39

^th

and 38

^th

, respectively.

Factors that limit the level of innovation in Poland include:

– low employment in KBE sectors (9.3% in 2000),

– insufficient cooperation between business and research institutions, – small number of new technology implementations,

– small number of enterprises founded on new technologies.

The list of imperfections of Polish innovation policy is longer.

Polish National System of Innovation has often been criticized.

According to Metcalfe’s definition adopted by the OECD, the National System of Innovation is a group of institutions that work together and individually to develop and disseminate new technology and create a foundation, on which governments can build their policy designed to stimulate innovation. In other words, it is a system of mutually linked institutions, whose purpose is to create, store and transmit knowledge and skills that support new technologies. The National System of Innovation plays an important role in supporting innovation in the economy.

Polish NIS has often been described as fragmented. Many analysts point at a lack of horizontal coordination at ministerial level. There are three alternative models of governance of innovation in Poland:

³

2 Inno Metrics, European Innovation Scoreboard, Comparative Analysis of Inovation Performance 2006.

3 J. Walendowski, M. Miedziński, Annual Innovation Policy Trends and Appraisal Report, European trend chart on innovation, 2006, p. 2, 12.

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Effectiveness of Polish innovation… 11

several ministries are involved in NIS coordination,

– appointment of one of the present Ministries to perform the role of coordination,

– coordination by a high Level Innovation Council.

The current model is based on the first solution. However the idea to establish the high level Innovation Council has been resurrected. This is an opportunity as it may lead to an improvement of the services of business intermediaries.

1. Despite a significant increase in the number of innovation and enterprise centres in Poland, a proportional increase in the level of innovation in the Polish economy did not occur.

⁴

These centres are mostly engaged in training activity, which has only limited potential to stimulate business innovation. Furthermore, the quality of the services provided is less than satisfactory. This situation is probably caused by financial difficulties experienced by these centres and by multiple barriers to their development, such as economic difficulties in a given region, lack of funds for growth and expansion of services and poor cooperation with local and regional institutions. Another reason for the poor quality of services provided by these centres is the shortage of experts with experience in innovation support, particularly technology transfer and commercial application of new technologies.

⁵

2. As far as institutions supporting innovation are concerned, there is a structural gap in relation to EU and other highly developed countries, since there is a lack of organizations to support the implementation of innovative projects that have already emerged from the research and development phase but have not yet entered the implementation phase.

3. Policy benchmarking (comparing innovation performance, policy making and delivery processes and methods) is not carried out systematically and no specific benchmark countries or regions have been defined. This does not mean that there is a lack of exchange of

4 Ośrodki innowacji i przedsiębiorczości w Polsce – Raport, Instytut Ekonomii Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, SOOIP, Łódź–Poznań 2004.

5 Kierunki zwiększania innowacyjności gospodarki na lata 2007–2013, The Ministry of the Economy, Warszawa, 19 August 2006, p. 29.

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information with other foreign institutions, but there is still lack of bilateral or multirateral programmes on innovation.

⁶

As we can see the Polish innovation policy is not the perfect one and possesses many shortcomings. The following recommendations to improve Poland’s innovation policy mix have been proposed: strengthen the science and technology base, focus on excellence and critical mass; improve the incentives for business R&D and innovation; foster industry – science linkages; strengthen human resources for science and technology; improve the governance of the innovation system.

⁷

The European Union innovation Policy in services

Due to the importance of services for the economic growth of developed countries, the EU decided to design a policy that would promote innovation in the service sector.

This is not a simple task, as the service sector itself is highly heterogeneous. Another source of difficulty is the problem of how to separate production from services. Until recently, there was no way to measure – and therefore to manage – innovation in the service sector (as it is impossible to manage something that cannot be measured). The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which has been perfected over the past 8 years and which plays an important role in comparisons of innovation in various EU countries as well as globally, makes no distinction between products and services.

The first report on innovation in the European business services industry appeared in 2006. The authors of the report defined new indicators, which are more appropriate for measuring innovation in service sectors. The SSII (Service Sector Innovation Index) is available for 25 EU member countries, as well as for Bulgaria, Romania and Norway.

⁸

The SSII required a new approach to the measurement of innovation. Only 4 out of the selected 24 indicators have been retained from EIS in an unchanged form. The 24 indicators cover seven areas:

6 J. Walendowski, M. Miedziński, op. cit., p. 11.

7 Policy Mix For Innovation in Poland – Key Issues and Policy Recommendations, Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, Warszawa 2007, p. 4.

8 M. Kanerva, H. Hollanders, A. Arundel, Trendchart Report: Can we Measure and Compare Innovation in Services?, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, 2006.

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human resources, demand for innovation, technical expertise, non-technological change (e.g. organizational innovation), sources of knowledge, commercialisation and intellectual property.

⁹

The availability of indicators designed exclusively to measure innovation in services must be considered an important step towards developing a policy that would support innovation in the service sector. The indicators need more work, but they already provide an important management tool.

Other important components of an EU policy to support innovation include the assessment of the current level of innovation in the service sector, the formulation of conclusions concerning necessary adjustments and the proposal of a comprehensive strategy to promote innovation in the service sector.

The strategy is based on four elements:

– the need to better understand the specificities of innovation in services, – the need to support all forms of innovation, not only technological

innovation,

– the need to develop specific support mechanisms for innovative services with growth potential,

– the need to foster trans-national cooperation on “better policies” in support of innovation in services in Europe.

¹⁰

The role of services in Poland’s innovation policy

Polish innovation policy is conditioned by development guidelines adopted by the European Commission. However, as with any member country, the economic conditions peculiar to Poland are superimposed on general EU policy guidelines.

As yet, Poland cannot boast of any great achievements in service innovation.

Polish regulations concerning innovation are also deficient in comparison to EU status quo. The 2006 document (“Directives for increasing innovation in the economy during 2007–2013”) evaluating the level of innovation in the Polish economy and formulating policy recommendations fails to accord

9 Innovation: In Your Offer, in Service, http:// cordis.europa.eu, 19.7.2011.

10 Commission Staff Working Document, Towards a European Strategy in Support of Innovation in Services: Challenges and Key Issues for Future Action, Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, 2007.

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services a prominent place. It does mention services, but only en passant, as it were. There is no separate section devoted to services. The same is true of another document, namely “The Operational Programme Innovative Economy”.

Services are again relegated to the background entirely.

While this treatment of services does not eliminate solutions in this sector of the economy that might stimulate innovations, it also does nothing to foster them. Key documents devoted to innovation in Poland fail to highlight the importance of services in an innovative economy. Under such circumstances, one can hardly expect entrepreneurs working in the service sector to feel encouraged to implement innovative solutions.

Effectiveness of innovation support in the assessment of Polish entrepreneurs in the service industry

¹¹

To see how Polish entrepreneurs in the service industry evaluate measures to support innovation, a two-part survey was carried out in late 2008 and early 2009. Twenty-two respondents — including 10 representatives of SMEs, 2 representatives of large companies and 10 persons working for consulting companies, consultants to European funds, members of research and technology parks, business associations and organisations or institutes that issue certificates of innovation in connection with EU projects — were interviewed in detail.

A quantitative empirical study (by means of a questionnaire) was conducted among 80 entrepreneurs working in the service industry in Poland.

The composition of the sample used in the survey is shown in figure 1.

Advantages of the current system of grants

Respondents mentioned the following advantages of the existing system of innovation support:

a) establishment of cooperation between institutions responsible for the distribution of EU funds and banks, and the growing tendency to simplify the required documentation, which helps eliminate the need to create a “double business plan” (one for the funding institution, and one for the bank, for the purpose of creditworthiness assessment);

11 A. Laskowska-Rutkowska, M. Szymański, Analizy w zakresie działalności innowacyjnej w sektorze usług, zlecenie Departamentu Rozwoju Ministerstw Gospodarki, Warszawa 2008.

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b) proliferation of preselection, which significantly accelerates the process of learning whether a company or project is eligible for support;

c) gradual implementation of plans to reduce the amount of documentation required at the preselection stage;

d) the criteria used to evaluate applications have become more objective;

e) cross-financing, which allows for subsidisation (in part — up to 10 percent) of “soft” investments with money granted for “hard” projects (and vice versa);

f) obvious benefits for the entrepreneur who receives a subsidy.

However, it should be noted that a large proportion of SME respondents (in the case of some issues — more than half) did not mention these benefits.

This might mean that these opportunities are not known to them and, therefore, that they do not take advantage of the full potential of the system in running their businesses. On the other hand, those entrepreneurs who were acquainted with these issues were almost unanimous in their positive attitude towards such measures, which demonstrates the great practical value of these opportunities.

Micro- enterprises; 16

Small enterprises; 22

Medium enterprises; 11 Big enterprises;6

Consulting firms; 5 Consultants; 5

Technological parks; 5 Entrepreneur's Associations; 6

Certifing Associations; 4

Fig. 1. The composition of the respondent group used in the survey Source: A. Laskowska-Rutkowska, M. Szymański, op. cit.

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Disadvantages of the current system of grants

Respondents mentioned the following disadvantages of many programmes, including the Innovative Business Operating Programme (PO IG):

– the requirement (still enforced) to provide extensive documentation, even at the preselection stage (30 percent of respondents mentioned this issue), – different procedures and criteria for the evaluation of applications used in

different programmes. An entrepreneur who wants to apply for funding under several programmes will likely have to prepare full, complex documentation, even in several versions and with separate sets of documents,

– the fact that several assistance programmes (again, PO IG is a typical example) require very high project valuations, running into millions of zlotys. For most SMEs, this amount is much too high, even with a bank loan

— which, moreover, many businesses cannot take due to their insufficient creditworthiness,

– no provision for advance payments,

– the fact that, having made the investment, the entrepreneur is not allowed (without returning the subsidy) to abandon the project or to change its goal or scope and, after completing the project, to close down the business for three or five years (depending on the size of the company),

– the vexing (though probably unavoidable) requirement to keep project documentation, which may at any moment be reviewed by authorised institutions,

– the fact that the investment must not be started before the application is submitted — which often impacts the timing of various investment activities.

Thus, the improvements that have been announced have been implemented

only in part. The system designed to support innovation is not entirely clear and

it raises a number of problems as to the correct interpretation of various

provisions (e.g., the question which programme a given project should be

assigned to). At the same time, institutions with decision-making powers

introduce various amendments (such as the replacement in the Lubuskie

province of disbursement of money in advance by reimbursement), which

clearly indicates that the system under discussion is not fully effective.

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Assessment of cooperation between the service industry and research institutions

1. Cooperation between science and business is one of the basic problems facing innovation in Polish enterprises. There is a general lack of trust in research — although it is an indispensable element in investment ventures of this kind. While consultants advising EU funds who participated in the survey pointed to examples of excellent cooperation between R&D and businesses, they stressed that research institutions should be encouraged to promote their services more actively.

2. The survey has shown that although the importance of education is well appreciated in Poland, the right conditions for generating and applying new knowledge have not been put in place. This may cause continued outflow of highly educated individuals from the country.

Entrepreneurs often fail to see R&D as a source of innovation in the service industry. Micro enterprises and small businesses usually lack their own R&D resources and do not purchase new solutions from other institutions.

Even though research and development activity plays a key role in securing approval for a funding application, only a tiny proportion of companies engage in this kind of cooperation. High risk of investment failure is one of the main factors hindering investment in new technologies, particularly in the form of research and development. This is exacerbated by the high cost of commissioned research, while a small company certainly cannot maintain its own R&D department (this would require large outlays a long time before potential payoff).

Respondents representing technology parks also highlighted the difficulties in communication stemming from different understanding of terminology and economic processes and patterns, as well as the lack of familiarity with research among entrepreneurs on the one hand, and imperfect understanding of SMEs by researchers on the other. Studies indicate that only a tiny percentage of businesses cooperate with research and development institutions.

Nevertheless, innovation in Poland is highly dynamic and outlays on

research and development are also increasing, which promises to narrow the

economic gap between Poland and other EU countries.

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The utilisation of EU funds for investment in innovation

Reluctance to engage in innovation is often caused by the lack of funds that could be used for this purpose. Research has shown that the smaller the company (this is especially true of the micro and small business sectors), the greater the likelihood that it finances research and development with its own funds. Only 22% of companies take out commercial loans; moreover, this figure is much higher for medium-sized businesses than for micro enterprises. Only 2% of companies use public funds; the same is true of loan funds. More importantly, a relatively larger number of medium-sized businesses benefit from public credit, such as technology loans and grants.

This is also true of EU funding for enterprises. However, it is not the only problem. Other important hurdles that companies must overcome include:

– obtaining exhaustive information about the funds — while this information is scattered over a number of websites,

– imperfect translations of some EU documents — without a good command of English it may be difficult to become fully acquainted with the support offered by the European Union,

– the lack of an easy way to find out whether a given company and its investment projects are eligible for EU support,

– the requirement to form groups (consortia) for the purpose of project implementation.

All these barriers stand in the way of the full utilisation of EU financial assistance by Polish businesses. However, in the opinion of five out of six respondents (professionals in this field, consultants, advisers and representatives of companies that issue certificates), this situation should improve due to the following measures: a wide range of preferential forms of project financing;

opportunities for networking with international partners; access to innovative research results.

The main barriers to innovation in the service industry)

The study shows that entrepreneurs see the lack of funds as one of the main reasons why they fail to introduce innovations in their companies (in the survey, 35% of respondents mentioned this problem, out of which 20%

mentioned it at the top of the list; for the in-depth interview, these figures were

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40% and 20% respectively). The lack of qualified staff was mentioned further down the list (survey — 10% of all responses, 5% at the top of the list;

interview — 30% and 15% respectively); it is worth noting that the respondents who were interviewed — and who were better acquainted with the issues surrounding innovation — mentioned this problem much more often than respondents who only filled out the questionnaire.

Respondents mentioned financial factors as the main barriers to investment. Insufficient capital for innovation, difficulties in securing outside financing and the high costs of implementation of innovative solutions were seen as the main obstacles faced by businesses (33% of respondents in the survey and 35% of respondents who were interviewed mentioned this problem at the top of the list). The mistaken belief that the market does not demand innovation, as well as the high risk of failure were also among the factors that had a negative impact on investment in organisations participating in the survey. Companies often decide against investment in innovation because they believe that they do not have sufficient financial resources to implement innovative solutions; that they lack competence to create an investment plan and to assess risk; finally, they do not perceive any need to invest in this area.

Other barriers worth mentioning include adverse legal and fiscal regulations — these were indicated significantly more often by the respondents who were interviewed than by those who filled out the questionnaire.

In 2005, entrepreneurs gave similar reasons for deciding against bringing innovations to their companies.

¹²

This means that attitudes towards innovation among entrepreneurs have not changed significantly in the recent years — perhaps indicating that the quality, scope and persuasiveness of innovation promotion have not been very high.

Conclusions

There are still many imperfections in Poland’s innovation policy in the service sector. However the legislators are trying to fulfil the gap between the European Commission recommendations towards innovation policy in services and Poland’s current innovation policy. In the last time some researches and

12 A. Żołnierski, Potencjał innowacyjny polskich małych i średniej wielkości przedsiębiorstw, Warszawa 2005.

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assessments concerning innovations in Polish service sector have been conducted to the legislator’s institution’s commission.

The typology of systemic failures, described in “Thematic report for the Expert Group on Innovation in Services”

¹³

could be helpful to examine the reasons of poor results of Poland’s innovation policy in services. There are four groups of failures:

– capability failures: inadequacies in potential innovator’s ability to act in their own best interest,

– failures in institutions: failure to (re)configure institutions so that they work effectively within the innovation system,

– network failures: failures related to the interactions among actors in the innovation system,

– framework failures: failures in the regulatory frameworks, health and safety rules, etc., as well as other background conditions, such as the sophistication of consumer demand, wider culture and social values.

EFEKTYWNOŚĆ POLSKIEJ POLITYKI PROINNOWACYJNEJ W SEKTORZE USŁUG

Streszczenie

W artykule poruszono kwestie związane z polską i unijną polityką proinnowacyjną w sektorze usług. Artykuł zawiera także ocenę instrumentów wspierania innowacyjności na przełomie 2008 i 2009 roku. Opinie wyłoniono na podstawie badania, w którym udział wzięła grupa 22 osób: dziesięciu przedstawicieli MSP, dwóch reprezentantów dużych firm, a także dziesięć osób z firm doradczych, konsultantów funduszy europejskich, członków naukowych parków technologicznych, stowarzyszeń i organizacji skupiających przedsiębiorców, organizacji i instytutów wystawiających firmom certyfikaty innowacyjności na potrzeby projektów unijnych. W artykule omówiono ponadto wady obecnego systemu przyznawania dotacji, współpracę sektora usługowego z jednostkami naukowymi, stopień wykorzystywania funduszy

13 Fostering Service Innovation. The Role of Research. Thematic Report for the Expert Group on Innovation in Services. Dialogic Innovative & Interactie, Utrecht 2006, p. 17.

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Unii Europejskiej w inwestowaniu w innowacje oraz główne przeszkody

utrudniające przedsiębiorcom działającym w sektorze usług wprowadzenie

innowacyjnych rozwiązań.

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SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL

No. 681 SERVICE MANAGEMENT vol. 8 2012

TOMASZ NOREK University of Szczecin

INNOVATION AUDIT AS A TOOL OF CONSTRUCTION AND EVALUATION OF INNOVATIVE POTENTIAL OF THE COMPANY.

RESULTS OF EMPIRICAL STUDIES

The article presents a platform of innovation audit and the results of the innovativeness studies of companies from the Western Pomeranian region obtained by means of it. Particular attention is devoted to those aspects of innovation audit that are used for building and evaluation of the innovative potential of companies.

Innovation audit platform is a research tool developed by the employees of the Department of Innovation Effectiveness of the Faculty of Management and Economics of Services at the University of Szczecin. The article uses selected results of empirical studies carried out by the Department of Innovation Effectiveness of the Faculty of Management at the University in the period from January to September 2010.

Introduction

In the opinion of a classic of management, P.F. Drucker, there are only two basic functions of an enterprise that bring income, namely innovations and marketing.

¹

The importance of using modern marketing concepts in contemporary management is commonly known and accepted. Unfortunately, still relatively few companies, especially from the SME sector, notice the importance of

1 P. Drucker, Innowacja i przedsiębiorczość. Praktyka i zasady, Warszawa 1992, p. 52.

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Tomasz Norek 24

innovativeness as the basic source of progress. It is confirmed by a lot of research carried out among Polish companies.

²

Internal and external determinants shaping innovativeness of enterprises are widely described in economic literature.

³

Nonetheless, one of the most important problems of contemporary economy is the problem of measuring and evaluation of innovativeness of enterprises. The issue of measuring the innovativeness of enterprises – scope and methodology of this measurement – is also widely discussed, both in academic circles and among practitioners. These discussions are reflected in a number of publications putting in order and systematizing the issue (e.g.: Oslo Manual, Principles of gathering and interpretation of data concerning innovativeness, 2005) or suggesting new methodologies of measuring the innovativeness of enterprises.

⁴

In the opinion of the Author of this article, the second group of publications deserves special attention since it provides many modern research tools in the problematic area.

An in-depth analysis of the problem indicates that a large part of factors substantially affecting the innovative potential of enterprises is difficult to measure or non-quantificational. An additional problem is the weakness of the systems monitoring the innovative potential of companies in the regional scale, which results in poor availability, quality and quantity of source data describing the condition of innovativeness of the region's companies.

Such a situation involves the following negative consequences:

– information related to innovativeness of the companies operating the region is incomplete, inconsistent, dispersed and often contradictory,

– information is made available with a significant delay,

– there are many difficulties in comparing the innovative potential of companies,

2 Comp. A. Żołnierski, Potencjał innowacyjny polskich małych i średniej wielkości przedsiębiorstw, PARP, Warszawa 2005; Innowacyjność w Polsce w ujęciu regionalnym: nowe teorie, rola funduszy unijnych i klastrów, ed. S. Pangis-Kania, K. Piech, Instytut Wiedzy i Innowacji, Warszawa, 2008; Zdolności innowacyjne polskich regionów, ed. A. Nowakowska Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2009.

3 Comp. M. Brzozowski, J. Siwińska-Gorzelak, D. Milczarek, P. Gierłatowski, Innowacje i Konkurencyjność, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2005; W. Janasz, K. Kozioł, Determinanty działalności innowacyjnej przedsiębiorstw, PWE, Warszawa 2007;

M. Raynot, C. Christense, Innowacje. Napęd wzrostu, EMKA, Warszawa 2008.

4 Comp. M. Kanerva, H. Hollanders, A. Arundel, Can We Measure and Compare Innovations in Services, MERIT, Maastricht 2008; M. Koszarek, M. Rybacka, S. Szultka, R. Wawrzyńczak, R. Pasternak, K. Flaht, Badanie innowacyjności sektora usługowego, PARP, Warszawa 2008.

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Innovation audit as a tool… 25

– there are many difficulties in comparing, analyzing and evaluation of the dynamics of changes in the innovative potential of enterprises for subsequent time periods.

The above difficulties make us constantly search for new solutions with regard to research and evaluation of the innovativeness of enterprises and their innovative potential.

One of the solutions to the aforementioned problems (in particular with regard to regular gathering of consistent, comparable data) may be innovation audit based on modern IT solutions (in the described case – based on an Internet audit platform).

Such a solution may be a perfect tool of evaluation of a company's innovativeness and innovative potential. It may be a tool providing information for evaluation of innovative activities currently carried out by companies.

Thanks to the possibility of regular gathering key information concerning innovativeness, it may also be a stimulator of construction and improvement of the strategy with regard to the company's innovativeness.

The purpose of this article is to present an innovation audit platform and to show selected results of studying the innovativeness of enterprises from the Western Pomeranian region obtained by means of it. Innovativeness audit platform is a research tool developed by the employees of the Department of Innovation Effectiveness of the Faculty of Management and Economics of Services at the University of Szczecin. The article uses selected results of empirical studies carried out by the Department of Innovation Effectiveness of the Faculty of Management at the University.

Innovation audit of companies in Western Pomeranian Region

Effective course of the innovative process in a company (usually under the

adopted strategy of innovativeness) requires continuous analysis, the results of

which enable making reliable effective management decisions. This analysis

should have particular stages of the innovative process implemented in

a company: identification of the company's problems with regard to

innovativeness, preparation of ideas, development of programs and projects in

the area of innovations, conducting research on innovative products and

services or, eventually, evaluation of acceptance of new solutions by clients and

other shareholders.

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Tomasz Norek 26

Innovation audit described in the present article is conducted by using a research survey containing 43 questions. The questions are divided into eight categories – which corresponds to the stages of the innovative process in the company. This methodology of research is consistent with the path of implementing the innovative process, commonly described in the subject literature.

⁵

The structure of innovation audit corresponds to the analysis of subsequent phases of the implementation process of innovative projects, starting from the analysis of the entity's situation and environment, through efficient searching for new ideas, accurate estimation of future results, obtaining the sources of financing, to successful and effective implementation of initiatives along with necessary control of their products and results. Filling in the survey enables automatic generation of a report summing up the research, along with anonymous comparison of the company's condition as compared to other entities in accordance with the selected criteria of choosing the background for comparisons.

Fig. 1. Scheme of studying the company's innovativeness under the innovation audit Source: prepared by the author.

The platform was started on the server of the Faculty of Management and Economics of Services.

⁶

5 Comp. P. Niedzielski, Zarządzanie innowacjami w przedsiębiorstwach usługowych, in:

Przedsiębiorstwo usługowe. Zarządzanie, ed. B. Filipiak i A. Panasiuk, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2008, p. 240 or D. Vahs, R. Burmester, Innovationsmanagement, Von der Produktidee zur erfolgreichen Vermarktung, Schäffer Poeschel, Verlag Stuttgart 2003, p. 144.

6 The platform is available on the website www.ai.wzieu.pl. Detailed information on the Innovation Audit platform can be found, among others, in the report by: P. Niedzielski, W. Downar, M. Skweres-Kuchta, Innovation Audit, Report on Pilot Research, Szczecin 2010.

Analysis of the situation

Searching for ideas

Estimation and planning

Financing

Culture of innovation

Communication and organization

Launching the project

Implementation of projects

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Innovation audit of companies in the Western Pomeranian Region

This article will present the results of studies implemented by means of the described audit platform in the period from January to September 2010. In accordance with the subject of the article and taking into account the nature and limited volume of the publication, one will also present only selected results of the conducted research. Particular attention is devoted to those aspects of innovation audit that are used for building and evaluation of the innovative potential of companies.

The study covered 312 randomly selected companies with their seats in the Western Pomerania province.

Fig. 2. Type structure of the research sample Source: prepared by the author.

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Tomasz Norek 28

Fig. 3. Size of the research sample Source: prepared by the author.

The companies that participated in the research represent various trades divided into the sector of services – 67% of the surveyed entities and companies from the production sector – 33%. Size structure of the examined companies looked as follows: the dominant group were small enterprises – 49%, the subsequent one are micro-enterprises – 41%, the number of medium and large enterprises was relatively close and oscillated within the range of 10%. In the audited sample as much as 86% of the examined entities implemented their operations in municipal areas.

The basic analysis, according to the methodology assumed in the course of research, refers to the general evaluation of the innovativeness climate in the examined company. This allows to evaluate the general approach of companies to the problem of innovativeness and the possible degree of involvement in the implementation of innovative projects.

The analysis of this category indicates that the dominant group of companies are entities evaluating this climate as average or good – 62% (as more optimistic ones we may consider production companies – 67% entities, while service companies – 59%). Assessment on a very good level is observed for production and services-oriented companies at a similar level: 15 and 14%, respectively.

The climate of innovativeness is regarded as very bad in 8% of the examined companies, more often in the case of services-oriented companies:

9%. The results obtained in this area are presented graphically on figure no. 4.

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0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Research sample Services Productions

Very bad Bad Average Good Very good

Fig. 4. Assessment of the innovativeness climate in the examined companies Source: prepared by the author.

Another presented section of research is the specification of information concerning the evaluation of effects of the conducted innovative operations of companies.

The level of the company's innovativeness is defined as a share of the number of new products and services over the period of the last three years, regardless of whether they are successful on the market or not.

The notion of “success ratio” includes the share of new products and services over the last five years which, after implementation, gained market approval (this aspect was also the subject of detailed studies).

This evaluation is supplemented by indicators concerning relations of

revenue and profit from sale of new products and services to total turnover of

the company over the period of the last three years. Distinctive companies in

this respect are the ones for which the value of the aforementioned indicators

exceeded the level of 30%. In the research methodology one assumed that if

these indicators oscillate within the range of 1%, the examined entity is in the

weakest group of companies.

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Tomasz Norek 30

Fig. 5. Evaluation of effectiveness of innovative activities Source: prepared by the author.

Analyzing the above area of data with the division of results for the sector of production and services, one should note that in the production sector all three indicators: level of innovativeness, success indicator and sale of innovations, reach a level definitely higher than among services-oriented entities. This means that hard innovations are definitely better received by the market.

Certain supplement for the above reasoning is the information with regard to acceptance by the market in respect of the new offer and consequences of its introduction in the form of entering a new area of operations. Most customers accepted new products or services of the examined companies, however, these innovations were identical to entering into the new area of the company's operations only in 9%.

The evaluated aspect of innovative customers acceptance as well as the

issue of diffusion of these innovations show high diversity with regard to the

sector of services and production – detailed results of research are presented

graphically in figure 6.

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Fig. 6. Assessment of market acceptance of introduced innovations and their diffusion Source: own study.

The obtained results also provide the possibility of collective assessment of particular stages of implementation of innovative processes in the examined companies. In order to indicate the most effectively completed stages of this process among the examined companies, one completed a point-based evaluation of the provided answers (in the scale of 1–5 points), and the results were subsequently averaged for the whole sample and with division into the sector of production and services. Figure 7 graphically presents the results of analysis of particular stages of the innovation process.

Fig. 7. Assessment of particular stages of the innovation process implemented by the examined companies Source: prepared by the author.

As the weakest link the examined entrepreneurs regard the culture of

innovation in their companies – this applies both to the companies from the

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Tomasz Norek 32

sector of services and production. Operations involving implementation and control of the implemented innovative projects and their financing was also assessed relatively low.

The examined companies best evaluate the stage of looking for ideas and the analysis of the situation and environment, which may indicate high innovative potential of companies from the region of the Western Pomerania.

Similar evaluations for production companies were obtained for the stages of implementation and control of projects as well as communication and organization of operations. A highly evaluated stage was the stage of launching the created innovations onto the market, which indicates the importance that the companies attach to the introduction of new products and services to the market (which is often related to the hope to increase profit).

Generally, one can also state that self-assessment of production sector companies is generally higher than self-assessment of services-oriented entities.

Very interesting information is provided by the analysis of the area related to financing innovative activities in companies.

Although management bodies of the examined companies are relatively well informed about the possibility of acquisition of funds for innovative operations (the answers “often” and “yes” were given for 44% of production companies and services for 41% of services-oriented companies, while only in the case of 8% of production companies and 11% of services-oriented companies it was stated that management has no such knowledge), most companies do not have budgets for the development of innovations (50% of production companies and 40% of services-oriented companies have no budget for the development of innovations) or these budgets are insufficient (64% of production companies and 54% of services-oriented companies).

Analysis and evaluation of this area indicates that it is the lack of funds

that is the main barrier in the development of innovativeness in the examined

companies.

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Fig. 8. Financing of innovative operations in a company Source: prepared by the author.

Another important area subject to the study is profit from sales of innovative goods and services. The analysis of this area indicates that the sale of 4% of goods and services (classified by the examined companies as innovative) brings significant profits to the examined companies – over 30% of total profit.

On the other hand, almost a half of the sale (48%) of innovative goods and services accounts for up to 20% of the profit. This may lead to the conclusion that innovations introduced to the market by the examined companies do not bring the anticipated level of profit.

The analysis also indicates that the sale of innovations introduced by

production companies is more profitable.

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Tomasz Norek 34

Fig. 9. Profit from sales of innovations Source: prepared by the author.

When analyzing and evaluating this area, one should note that the exact distribution was not known (quantity and volumes of the sale of particular goods and services regarded by the company as innovative), which makes it impossible to conduct precise reasoning in this respect. Precise analysis of this area would require recording detailed data on the sales of particular goods.

Conclusions

Innovation audit platform is an original and modern solution with regard to gathering and analyzing data concerning innovative activity of enterprises.

The first studies implemented by means of this tool show that this is a tool that may have a potentially strong influence on support of scientific research as well as support of the operations of enterprises interested in conducting precise evaluations of functioning of their operations in the area of innovativeness.

The most important advantages of the described innovation audit platform should include:

– general availability of the Internet platform,

– simplicity, clarity and free participation in the study,

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– availability of the mechanism allowing to evaluate the dynamics of innovativeness changes in the company, since the audit can be performed in cycles,

– availability of the mechanism allowing to conduct benchmarking comparisons with other entities registered in the system.

An additional advantage of is the fact that innovativeness of a company may be perceived differently, depending on the responding entity (subjectivity of opinions) – thus, the tool allows to confront various positions and opinions on the development of the company's innovativeness, which may positively affect the shaping the company's innovative strategy.

AUDYT INNOWACYJNOŚCI JAKO NARZĘDZIE BUDOWY I OCENY POTENCJAŁU INNOWACYJNEGO PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWA. WYNIKI

BADAŃ EMPIRYCZNYCH

Streszczenie

W artykule zaprezentowano platformę audytu innowacyjności oraz uzyskane dzięki niej wyniki badań innowacyjności przedsiębiorstw regionu zachodniopomorskiego. Szczególną uwagę poświęcono tym aspektom audytu innowacyjności, które służą budowaniu i ocenie potencjału innowacyjnego przedsiębiorstw.

Platforma audytu innowacyjność jest narzędziem badawczym stworzonym

przez pracowników Katedry Efektywności Innowacji Wydziału Zarządzania

i Ekonomiki Usług Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. W artykule wykorzystano

wybrane wyniki badań empirycznych przeprowadzonych przez Katedrę

Efektywności Innowacji Wydziału Zarządzania Uniwersytetu w okresie od

stycznia do września 2010 roku.

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SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL

No. 681 SERVICE MANAGEMENT vol. 8 2012

AGNIESZKA WOJTCZUK-TUREK Warsaw School of Economics

ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOURS – THE ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN CREATING ORGANIZATIONAL VALUE IN

THE SECTOR OF SERVICES

Introduction

A modern model of organization and value creation significantly differs from what the Industrial Revolution began with. Digitalization, communications and globalization influenced both the change in the nature of companies and the way in which values are created. Business transformation is supported by two main pillars: 1) value is based on exceptional, personalized consumer experience (concentration on individuals); 2) the stress is put on seeking access to resources (not basing on the ownership of resources), which will allow to satisfy the customers’ needs in a given moment of time.

¹

Abandonment of the paradigm of treating the consumer as a homogeneous group forms – in the opinion of the authors – “a step forward”.

What changes, then, is the very understanding of innovation – and, in the words of Prahalad and Krishnan – innovation is perceived as shaping of the customers’ expectations, and also as a continuous reaction to the ever-changing expectations, behaviours and experiences. It is achievable via reaching for the

1 C.K. Prahalad, M.S. Krishnan, Nowa era innowacji, Wydawnictwa Profesjonalne PWN, Warszawa 2010, p. 15.

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Agnieszka Wojtczuk-Turek 38

best talent and resources available anywhere worldwide. These two ideas must remain interconnected – the resources of the many to sustain the needs of an individual.

²

Implementation of such a new approach (to create the values basing on personalized customer’s experience and not on the product) requires the companies, among others, to increase flexibility within business processes which are meant to reach the resources and to exploit them in an appropriate manner. The rise of innovation – reshaping of ideas into specific actions – is achieved by way of processes in which a significant role is played by social and technological architecture. The authors state that these processes should be related to appropriate qualifications, attitudes and orientations on the part of the managers. As Magretta stresses, a change in the process of creation of values for the company and the customer is expressed in the fact that creation of values is subject to information and ideas.

³

Therefore, an extremely important role in the company’s innovativeness is played by human capital, and, in particular, the competence potential of its employees. Such a view is validated by the fact that modern innovative processes are characterized by interactivity and multidisciplinarity, and that the innovations are conditioned by technological know-how and B+R activities only partly; in most cases they spring from experience, knowledge – especially managerial knowledge – and a general level of education.

⁴

Moreover, innovation may be treated in the categories of

“learning”, as an effect of accumulation of knowledge used by the company.

Knowledge forms a base for innovative creation of new values.

Specificity of value creation in the process of providing services – the role of human capital

Creation of economic value by modern organizations is based, to a significant extent, on non-material resources, and a special role in this process is ascribed to human capital.

⁵

Value generation is a function of employees’

2 Ibidem, p. 12.

3 J. Margetta, Managing In the New Economy, Harvard Business School Press, Boston 1999.

4 E. Malicka, Kompetencje menedżerów w kontekście przedsięwzięć innowacyjnych, in:

Zarządzanie kompetencjami w organizacji, ed. E. Mastyk-Musiał, Oficyna Wydawnicza WSM, Warszawa 2005.

5 N. Bontis, J. Fitzenz, Intellectual Capital ROI: a Causal Map of Human Capital Antecedents and Consequents, “Journal of Intellectual Capital” 2002, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 223–247;

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Organizational innovative behaviours… 39

competences, attitudes and intellectual ability. The special generative potential of the human capital lies in a possibility to create knowledge which is a source of organizational innovation. Human capital is generally assumed to be the most significant element of the Intellectual Capital (IC).

Although intellectual capital became the main driving force behind value creation for all types of organizations, there is no systematic research as to whether there exist any fundamental differences in the ownership, management, creation and protection of IC of the service oriented companies as compared with product oriented companies.

⁶

In the light of analyses to date, it appears that service oriented companies have larger resources of human capital and “renewal capital”, and they focus to a larger degree on creation of intellectual capital. It has consequences for the way in which value is created in a company – such approach is diversified and business-dependent.

In the case of the service sector, the added value is created at the meeting point of organization and customer (in contact with the customer). On the other hand, in production sector the product is treated as a key element in the value chain. However – according to Prahalad and Krishnan – this characteristic is changing. The transformation lies in the fact that a company moves from selling the product to selling a service

⁷

(product becomes an integral part of a service, but its value is based on the service), which reshapes the relation with the client from transactional relationship towards service relationship.

⁸

There occurs a shift from approach to value creation focused on the product (e.g., tyres) to encompassing value creation on the basis of personalized experience (e.g., pricing which is based on the way tyres are used and the driver’s habits, which influence their wear).

⁹

A particular consumer becomes a “centre” of value

P.N. Rastogi, Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital as a Paradigm of Value Creation,

“Human System Management” 2002, No. 21, pp. 229–240; K. Namasivayam, B. Denizci, Human Capital in Service Organizations: Identifying Value Drivers, “Journal of Intellectual Capital”, 2006, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 381–393; A. Kianto, P. Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, P. Ritala, Intellectual Capital in Service- and Product-oriented Companies, “Journal of Intellectual Capital” 2010, Vol.

11, No. 3, pp. 305–325.

6 A. Kianto, P. Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, P. Ritala, op. cit.

7 Services comprise an increasingly larger share of production activities in developed countries; to an extent which justifies using the term of a “service based economy”. This is why understanding the role of intellectual capital has, according to researchers of this domain, fundamental importance. H. Chesbrough, J. Spohrer, A research manifesto for services science,

“Communication of the ACM” 2006, Vol. 49, No. 7, pp. 35–40.

8 C.K. Prahalad, M.S. Krishnan, op. cit.

9 Ibidem, p. 25.

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Agnieszka Wojtczuk-Turek 40

creation and his personalized needs are fulfilled via employment of multiple resources. It forces the organization to function with increasing flexibility (e.g.

facilitating regrouping of resources) in the process of value co-creation, jointly with the customer. According to Prahalad and Krishnan such a co-creative character of involvementmay enable the company to get to know its customers as participants of the value creation process.

¹⁰

Complexity of problems resulting from concentrating the attention on an individual customer, related to the situation of value creation in the process of providing services, requires the employees to possess not only high competence, but also an appropriate attitude – of respect for these requirements, of motivation for undertaking them, of presenting a wide array of diversified behaviours related to their implementation, and of willingness to learn.

Paying attention to individual competence in the process of providing services is important also because even if the value is created by processes which are invisible for the customer (e.g. in tourist products and services), the possibility to transfer these values by the front line employees is of critical significance for the organization.

¹¹

The activities characteristic for the sector of services are: a close interaction between the supplier and the consumer, simultaneity of “production” and consumption in real time, multifaceted character of the created knowledge and exchange (heterogeneity), combining of knowledge into useful systems, exchange of processes and experience, a lack of possibility for preservation over time (e.g., permanence), using the creation of intellectual capital, transparency and elusiveness.

¹²

Namasivayam and Denizci stress that service sector is particularly dependent on knowledge.

¹³

The knowledge employed in the process of providing services is generated in a continual manner, in the ongoing interaction with the consumers, global suppliers and partners. In the context of direct contact of an employee with a customer, a significant role is played by both personal competence and the knowledge related to the product. To a significant extent, however, the so called hidden knowledge

¹⁴

is required – knowledge

10 Ibidem, p. 123.

11 K. Namasivayam, B. Denizci, op. cit.

12 A. Kianto, P. Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, P. Ritala, op. cit., p. 306.

13 K. Namasivayam, B. Denizci, op. cit.

14 Nonaka and Takeuchi employ a division into into explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge.

The former is expressed via formal language, and may be communicated or propagated by way of

SERVICE MANAGEMENT

U N I V E R S I T Y O F S Z C Z E C I N SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL

NO. 681